Day 7: Back to Magic Kingdom

So this was my plan - do each park for a day, then Universal, then take a day off, and finally circle back to the Magic Kingdom to see whatever we hadn't seen the first day.

It was noon before I realized this meant I had put us, tired and ready to be home, at Magic Kingdom on Saturday of a national three-day weekend.  Smart move, Mom.

But the day started off well.  "Sheriff" was finally out from his barriers and were were able to take some photos with him.

Then we boarded the shuttle.  Daniel was excited to "find" Mickey in the flowers when we got there and insisted on a picture.

And then we boarded the train for Frontierland.  We were able to get a ride pass to go to Thunder Mountain Railroad because of Grandma's scooter, so we poked around Adventureland for a while, waiting in a mammoth line for Aladdin's flying carpets (another Dumbo-style ride) and then rushing back to ride TMR.  All the kids LOVED it, including Daniel.  This pleased me, but it also meant they all wanted to go on more roller coasters and the shortest line for any of them in the park was about 50 minutes.  Not going to happen.

We stopped for lunch in Tomorrowland and got burgers and hotdogs and goofed around.

We checked out a few more sights and then everyone decided it was time to go back to the hotel for some more time in the pool.  Grandma asked them to hold her scooter for later, which was good because they were all out of them!

After the time in the pool, Boppy joined us.  The boys were pretty much done and I got to be "that mom" dragging them to the entrance to Magic Kingdom while they cried.  We left Grandma and Boppy in our dust as we high tailed it to make it to our fast pass for Pirates of the Caribbean, which Daniel again bailed out of as soon as the line got dark.  So we waited outside with Grandma and Boppy and then everyone went together on the Jungle Cruise.

From there it was back across to the Tomorrowland Speedway, with a short stop for photos.

At the Speedway, Boppy and Grandma sat out while we sailed to the front of the line on our Fast Passes.  Daniel and I paired up for one car, Uncle and Max in a second, and Wendy and Caroline in a third.  This third was unsettling because neither "driver" has an actual license.  The kids all got to steer while the grown-ups put the pedal to the medal.  Daniel was quite a speedy driver and he LOVED it.

After this, we repaired to dinner, at which there was nothing that Caroline wanted to eat and she proceeded to pout and whine.  To distract her, I took her next door because there was next to no line to meet Anna and Elsa.  Sadly, next to no line translated into a nearly 45 minute wait, all during which Caroline whined that she would go back to  Uncle and Grandma and I could meet them for her and take lots of pictures.

Finally, we made it through and she was star struck.

It was now late and cold and everyone was tired, but Caroline was bummed she hadn't gotten to go on more rides.  Enter the merry-go-round!  The carousel to the rescue!  We got on and actually rode twice - once the kids went with Wendy and the next time with me and Uncle.  We're not entirely sure it was legal for Uncle to double up with Caroline on her pony, but nobody told us not to.

We managed to get on the final ride before the carousel closed down for the fireworks.  YAY!  Then we headed out to leave.  Caroline was still whining about being hungry so she and Uncle peeled off and got her chicken nuggets and fries back at the same restaurant we'd been to for lunch.  The rest of us got caught in the congestion outside the Castle as fireworks started so we stayed put to watch them and Uncle and Caroline stopped to watch from outside the restaurant.

And then back to the hotel to pack!